2 dogs vanish in La Sal Mountains during bear hunt


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MOAB — Two highly trained hunting dogs mysteriously vanished in the La Sal Mountains over the Memorial Day weekend, launching a sheriff’s investigation and prompting the owner of the dogs to offer a reward.

Aaron Carter said he was bear hunting Saturday afternoon in the Hell Canyon area with a group of nine dogs, when Rowdy and Bounce disappeared.

All that was left behind were their GPS collars, which were discarded in some thick brush, leading Carter to believe someone took the dogs.

“I feel it’s almost more of a kidnapping than it is a theft,” Carter said. “They’re part of our family and we treat them as such, and when one of them is taken, it’s taking a piece of us, too.”

San Juan County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Bristol said because of the high value of the dogs, it could potentially be a felony case.

“They can be anywhere from $600 apiece as a puppy to $3,000 apiece for a well-working dog,” Bristol said.

Carter said he believed his dogs were worth $3,000.

The area is well-traveled by tourists and outdoorsmen, but it was unclear who might have taken the dogs.

Bristol said someone could have taken the dogs for a variety of reasons: to be mean, for their value, or because the individual may not like what houndsmen do.


I feel it's almost more of a kidnapping than it is a theft. They're part of our family and we treat them as such, and when one of them is taken, it's taking a piece of us, too.

–Aaron Carter, dog owner


Carter acknowledged not everybody likes his hobby that adds to his livelihood, but he said houndsmen play a vital role in helping to control the bear population.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources wildlife section chief Bill Bates also noted houndsmen provide a valuable service, helping to maintain a balance with available resources.

“It’d be very difficult to hunt bears without the use of hounds,” he said.

Carter suggested the case could also boil down to someone misunderstanding why the dogs are alone and may appear thin when in fact they are fit.

Tourists, Carter said, have walked off with his dogs before.

“I’ve had to drive all the way to Rifle, Colorado, all the way to Grand Junction,” Carter said. “People just pick them up and then they, a couple days later, (have) buyer’s remorse or whatever it is from picking them up and hauling them off.”

Carter is pleading with people to leave hunting dogs where they find them.

“We’ve got GPS collars on them; we’ve got telemetry collars on them; we’re active in the field looking for them and when they disappear like that, it makes it that much worse to try to gather them up,” Carter said. “If you do happen to run into one of them, they — 90 percent of them, 99 percent of them — are friendly dogs, but just leave them where you found them.”

Carter said Rowdy and Bounce hold significance to his children, and said they are “very heartbroken.”

He is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever took the dogs.

Bristol said anybody with information in the case should call the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office at 435-587-2237.

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